The Interminable Ending of Clara Oswin Oswald
by Azalia cinnamon sticks
Summary: The seemingly interminable life of the Doctor's newest companion possesses layer upon layer of mysteries and reasons yet to be revealed. As the Doctor and Clara Oswald travel the universe together, they uncover the enigmatic mysteries the stars have kept close to their chests and break open the old soul of a certain Time Lord.
1. Veshion

"DOCTOR!" Clara yelled frantically as she ran through the alien streets of Veshion, night was falling and the dusty orange rings of Lula hung over her. Veshion was a moon; bigger than Earth's and environmentally enhanced to be livable. The Doctor had told her that the moon was protected with an invisible air barrier- like that of the Tardis', only weaker and unable to stop bullets.

Clara stopped for a moment to gaze up at the rings, they were really quite an amazing sight, more striking than the brightest sunset and more beautiful than... well, what could she compare it to? She had been traveling with the Doctor for some time now, but she never seemed to be able to quite grasp the splendor of what she stumbled across. She sighed, still gazing up, letting her shoulders sway with the movement of the crowd moving past her.

"Right. The Doctor." She mumbled to herself as she lowered her head and continued on her way. Her shoes scuffed here and there as she clumsily dodged creatures with horns, and tubes, and wings, and even some with twenty eyes. She also came across what looked like lava-lamp balloon animals, glowing pendants that apparently hummed when you touched them, and furry fizzy drinks. Every so often, Clara would stop to look at certain odds and ends, leaning over and scrunching her nose with a smile.

The Doctor had taken her here to watch the Lavirra of the Great Snake; a cosmic event in which all the planets in this particular solar system lined up, and a 3-dimentional, sparkling shadow of a huge snake appeared to slither up Veshion's biggest temple. He said that it occurred each millennia, attracting visitors from all over the local star systems.

"Umph-" She huffed as she got pushed into a stand. Unfortunately, she wore her heeled ankle boots today, making her a bit uncomfortable. They weren't obscenely high, no more than two inches, but still. She always felt so short around the Doctor. With a glare in her pusher's direction, Clara straightened and fought her way back into the crowd.

"Oh… Doctor!?" She called out again, turning in circles. She huffed, frustrated; she was lost.

Clara fondly remembered the first time she had gotten lost while traveling with her strange Doctor, Akhaten, the singing city Clara often called it. The streets of Veshion where not unlike those streets of her first taste of Alien worlds; an array of street vendors, colorful attire, and really,_ really_, strange creatures.

The architecture and layout of the city was also quite memorable. The pavement below her feet was made of something like bricks, except with little glowing confetti things in them, like fireflies coming out of clay. The glowing confetti also climbed up the buildings, but didn't look as condensed as the bricks of the street.

"Doctor!" She yelled again, scanning the streets for her Time Lord. "All my stars." She mumbled under her breath.

Clara huffed as a purple, eight foot tall man with gills bumped into her. How was she supposed to find him with all these people? "Well, the Doctor would stick out." She mumbled again; everyone on this planet was so… alien. And the Doctor wasn't.

"Excuse me," Clara said, walking up to a three-eyed street vendor with skin the texture of tree bark. "Have you seen a man… um… looks like a human… and wears a bow tie?" Clara said cautiously; unsure of how to address the old woman. The old bark lady nodded her head and pointed a knobby finger down the street. "Thank you!" Clara said with an easy solute, then started pushing her way through the odd crowd.

"Doctor?" She called out. She thought she heard the sonic screwdriver somewhere. Turning once again in circles, Clara scanned the buildings in front of her, they seemed much older than the ones she was just in front of, torn-up cloths covered doorways and strange markings were carved into the glowing brick path. The street was formed like a giant T, she had been stranded at the long stretch and this part- the corner, divided into two directions.

Clara took a deep breath, relaxing a bit, this part of the street wasn't nearly as busy as where she was before. "Doctor?"

There it was again! The sonic screwdriver. "DOCTOR!" She yelled, louder this time.

_...Clara... _

A voice sang, resonating through the air, making the ground below her feet rumble- it was- well... she didn't have a clue.

She stopped, unknowingly holding her breath as she realized the voice hadn't called out… not physically… but whispered like a ghost… like an echo of a ghost.

"Hello?" Clara called out unsurely.

_...Clara..._

It sang again. The ethereal voice was all over her; crawling through her skin to soak into her bones... slipping like spaghetti noodles through her fingertips... rolling down to the chipped paint on her toenails—her head echoed with the sound of her whispered name and the world suddenly seemed to fall into an enigmatic lilt.

"Doctor?" She mumbled, her vision blurring as her head became heavy.

Clara could hear it; the sonic screwdriver whistling far away, spinning in circles around her head. Suddenly, the ground was spinning, also. With what vision she had left, Clara saw the spinning pavement rush up to her face, the glowing worm confetti in the sunbaked bricks squished to her cheek, quickly dimming away.

"Doctor…" She barely got out. "Help… m…"

* * *

"CLARA!" The Doctor shouted as he ran down the streets of Veshion with a giddy smile on his face. "Clara, we need to go!" He laughed, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and waved it around a bit. The sky was getting dark, the rings of Lula still bright. The Doctor might have just insulted the Arch-Harbinger and might have just been sentenced to crystalized isolation; a sentence he would not like to deal with a second time.

For a moment, the Doctor became a bit worried about his short little companion, but he knew Clara wasn't scared of getting lost; not with that fiery little soul she had. She would, however, have a few sharp words to say if she was stuck here as the Doctor de-crystalized himself (Which he would greatly enjoy, seeing as how the Lularians had already attempted to punish him with crystallization once. Imagine their furry little faces if he escaped yet again!)

"Ha!" The Doctor Laughed out loud as he turned in a circle. He was extraordinarily happy, standing in this packed street, turning in circles as he scanned the crowd.

The street was pack with all sorts of strange species—a little bit of Jakdon here, a sprinkle of Looidose way over there and just a dash of timey-wimey just where he stood. People dashed here and there, bustling past him and his loopy smile.

Just like Clara; Here one moment and gone the next! Very rude on her part.

"Now where has she gone?" He mumbled to himself as he looked around. Across the sea of people, an old Whitherwor caught his eye sitting at a little shop with blanket upon blanket resting on her bumpy shoulders. The shop she was bundled in was draped in all sorts of mystical little odds and ends; floating chocolate ears, flowers made of star dust, even spindles of fur from the mountain Niantoes! Ah!

"Why, hello!" He greeted with a smile, walking up to her whimsical little shop. The old woman wore wrinkly, bark-like skin and knobby fingers—the ageing process of the Whitherwor. Each year, a small little bud of a wrinkle would appear on their skin, slowly etching deeper into them as the year went on. He would have to guess she was around one to two hundred years old—nearing her end. "Wouldn't suppose you know where my friend is? Short, bumpy nose, big brown eyes." He said as he straightened his bow tie and looked around him.

The feeble Whitherwor nodded, her prickly, wooden lips closed tightly together.

"Oh, Lovely!" He smiled and clapped his hands together then straightened his bow tie again. "Might I ask where she went?" He questioned nicely, slightly leaning down towards her.

She nodded again as a third eye opened in the middle of her forehead. She slowly raised a quivering knobby finger, pointing down towards the corner of the street.

"Ah, excellent!" He smiled and wiggled his long fingers, scanning the street her finger pointed to. "Let's go find my impossible little girl."


	2. The Glowing confetti worms

**3 Days ago**

* * *

"AH!" Clara shrieked as the Tardis jolted violently. "She did that on purpose!" She yelled.

"Did not!" The Doctor yelled back, sprawled across the control station as he pulled this and that, seemingly a bit haphazard.

"She doesn't - umph!" She let out as she fell on her rear end; the Tardis landed quite abruptly with one last rumble. Clara huffed as she straightened her dress and stood. "She doesn't like me. Why doesn't she like me?!" She yelled, demanding an answer.

"No need to be sour," The Doctor reasoned, stepping away from the control station while wearing a hurt expression. "Like I said, she can hear you; be nice!" His voice raising, not out of anger; almost as if he wanted The Tardis to hear also—the statement was meant for both of them. Clara grumbled as she crossed her arms and defiantly stuck out her tong.

"So, Doctor, what are we doing here?" She asked curiously, sliding down to rest in one of the chairs.

"Chronons! Discrete particles of time." The Bow-tied Doctor explained as he twirled around the Tardis. "A friend of mine once created a planetary shell of them in the atmosphere of the planet Lakertya to create a time manipulator." He explained matter-of-factly, turning to lean against the control panels to face Clara. "Another friend of mine, actually two friends of mine, actually two friends and UNIT used mirrors to bounce Chronon particles off of the first friend I mentioned, Donna Noble, ah Donna, I miss Donna, she was very noble, and Rose was… yeah, she was there, too. Rose and Donna." His voice trailed off as he looked past Clara with a certain sadness in his eyes.

"Doctor?" Clara asked unsurely, getting up from her chair.

"Yes, Chronons! Chronons, chronons, chronons." He said, snapping out of his previous state. He whipped out his sonic screw driver and began to toss it from one hand to another.

"Alright… are they dangerous?" Clara asked the pacing Doctor.

"No, yes, maybe, well… depends on who has them. The Time Lords used them as weapons, trapped the Mad Mind of Bophemeral in a single Chronon, the Dalek prison also utilized them. Me and my granddaughter actually got a bit of chronon radiation poisoning, but that's another story for another time." The Doctor explained excitedly.

"Okay, so this place; Veshion, has chronon particles?"

"It is absolutely soaked in them!" The doctor shouted giddily, his eyes lit up in anticipation of their next adventure. "Now, let's go have some fun!" He said giddily, walking up and bopping her on the nose with a long finger. "Geronimo!"

* * *

"Ow," Clara moaned as she picked herself off the floor. Everything was pitch black except for the tiles beneath her with the glowing confetti worms. "All my stars." She let out under her breath. The room echoed quietly as she stood up, her footsteps bouncing off the walls. "Hello? Is there someone there?" she stood still for a moment, anticipating an answer. Nothing. She only heard herself.

Clara could barely see her own hand in front of her face, although, the glowing tiles beneath her gave her some comfort. Clara reached out her hands to feel around for a wall, or a chair, really anything that could tell her where she was.

Her frustrated huff echoed loudly throughout the room. Based on the echoes, the room must have been fairly large, the sounds of her reverberated footsteps and loud complaints reminded her of the old churches in London, with their domed ceilings and huge arches.

"CLARA!"

She Yelped and looked around franticly, her hand resting over her racing heart.

"Wh-who's there!?" Clara called out. She removed her hand from her heart and balled up both of her hands into fists. "I'm not afraid of you!" She shouted aimlessly.

"Clara!" The voice came again. It was a bit distorted from the cavernous echo that followed, but then the room stilled after a moment, like water after waves. She recognized it, the voice, she knew she recognized it. "Claaaraaa," the voice sang.

"Doctor! Doctor I'm here!" She shouted giddily, excitedly waving her arms around franticly beside the darkness.

"No need to be sour." He scolded, his voice sounded eerie when reverberated like a rock thrown in a cave.

"I'm not sour; I just got kidnapped an—"

"Like I said, she can hear you; be nice!" He scolded again. Clara stopped.

"What?" She mumbled under her breath. Clara looked around, trying to find anything to indicated where the Doctor was or where his voice was coming from. It sounded like he was repeating the conversation they had three days earlier. "Doctor, come on." She said, exasperated at the Doctor's shenanigans.

"The Time Lords used them as weapons." His voice rang again.

"Doctor stop it! You're scaring me!" Clara scolded, putting her hands on her hips. She was getting more scared with every reply from the Doctor, not that she was going to let that show. Clara also had the shuddersome feeling that someone was watching her.

"The Mad Mind."

"Doctor, stop it." Clara shrank back. She couldn't see anything. She could feel her fear leak into her lungs as her heart began a steady climb in acceleration.

"The Dalek prison."

"Doctor, please, I'm scared," Clara had been too caught up in her search of the voice to notice the glowing confetti worms floating out of their tiles. As soon as she saw them floating up, she began twirling around, dodging the little specs of light. "Doctor?" The specs looked like fireflies, and they all seemed to be gravitating towards her. There were hundreds, thousands of them!

"Absolutely soaked in them!" The doctor's chipper voice resonated throughout the room as Clara found it getting harder and harder to keep dodging the glowing confetti.

"Help!" She shouted, they were getting too close now, so Clara tried swatting at one. "Ahshesh!" She hissed as the skin where she swatted burned.

"Absolutely soaked in them!"

"Doctor!" She yelled as another glow spec touched her. She was swarmed with thousands of little lights, what used to be pitch black was now blindingly bright, she could feel the heat rolling off the swarm of glowing confetti worms as they floated closer and closer. "DOCTOR!" She screamed.

"Now, let's go have some fun!"


End file.
